New Delhi

The government is planning to shift the responsibility of procuring and distributing pulses to states while the Centre will play a supervisory role in the functioning of Rs 11,000 crore price stabilisation fund (PSF).
Since the fund is huge and the procurement has to be completed within a specified period, states will do a better job if they are provided the necessary policy support and funds, sources in the consumer affairs ministry said.

Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank Monday reported a 13.54 percent growth in consolidated net profit for the three months to December at Rs 1,844 crore, driven by core income growth on higher advances and wider margins.

On a standalone basis, net profit came in at Rs 1,291 crore, a 23 percent higher over the year-ago period.

The core net interest income grew 22.76 percent to Rs 2,939 crore, driven by a 23 percent surge in advances and also a widening of margins to 4.33 percent.

Several government telecom projects funded by the Universal Service Obligations Fund (USOF) are facing time and cost overruns for reason like delay in tendering and decision making, legal issues through PILs, allegations of outdated technologies, and internal rows between its two implementing agencies like BSNL and BBNL over billings and other aspects of the projects.

USOF, having a corpus of Rs 50,000 crore, is funded out of the 5 per cent levy collected from private telcos to fund government telecom projects.

Farmers in the country have a reason to smile, as another booster package from the Narendra Modi government is in the works, which aims to provide interest-free loan up to Rs 1 lakh to small and marginal farmers covered under the Kisan credit card (KCC) scheme.

WelcomHeritage recently added a new nature resort in Amritsar ‘Ranjitvilas’ to its vast portfolio of heritage properties. It is the 33rd operational property of the 40 alliances, spanning across 15 states and the first one for the ‘farm-stay’ option of the group.

Ranjitvilas, a property developed and approved by the Punjab Heritage & Tourism Promotion Board under it’s Farm Tourism Scheme, is a joint venture of four family members of Late Sardar Ranjit Singh Makhni.

Close on the heels of recapitalisation, Bank of India, which received the highest infusion of Rs 10,086 crore last month, has submitted details of its three key parametres—net NPA, return on assets (RoA) and capital to risk weighted assets ratio (CRAR)—to the RBI to consider its performance to take the lender out of the PCA list.

Indian drug majors Lupin, Sun Pharma and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals are recalling various drugs from the

US market for a variety of reasons. As per the latest Enforcement Report published by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), Lupin is voluntarily recalling 55,000 vials and 1,60,241 boxes of anti-bacterial drug Ceftriaxone for injection in various strengths.

The recall has been initiated by Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a subsidiary of the Mumbai-based firm.